The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

by Haruki Murakami

These “clients” and I were linked by the mark on my cheek. Cinnamon’s grandfather (Nutmeg’s father) and I were also linked by the mark on my cheek. Cinnamon’s grandfather and Lieutenant Mamiya were linked by the city of Hsin-ching. Lieutenant Mamiya and the clairvoyant Mr Honda were linked by their special duties on the Manchurian-Mongolian border, and Kumiko and I had been introduced to Mr Honda by Noboru Wataya’s family. Lieutenant Mamiya and I were linked by our experiences in our respective wells – his in Mongolia, mine on the property where I was now sitting. Also on this property had once lived an army officer who had commanded troops in China. All of these were linked as in a circle, at the centre of which stood prewar Manchuria, continental East Asia, and the short war of 1939 in Nomonhan. But why Kumiko and I should have been drawn into this historical chain of cause and effect I could not comprehend. All of these events had occurred long before Kumiko and I were born.